The Puppet
by SL the Pyro
Summary: The girls of Gensokyo face an evil blacker than any that has ever plagued their land, and it doesn't seek simple amusement or personal gain like its previous antagonists... it only wants destruction and vengance. WARNING: graphic violence and gore.


**A/N:** Wow, this is quite a difference from what I usually write... and it's for a fandom where you don't really think it would pop up. But who doesn't enjoy a good horror now and then? I guarantee if you're looking for a scare, you won't be disappointed.

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Touhou nor its characters (just the villain I put in) and I seek no profit from making this. This is solely for entertainment purposes.

**IMPORTANT**

This story contains graphic depictions of violence and gore. If this offends you, I suggest you stop reading here. But for those brave enough, enjoy...

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Prologue: Mutilation

Darkness. Though her eyes were supposed to be used to the dark of night, the thick darkness around her was smothering her vision. She could barely see the ground she was walking on, holding her arms out wide and constantly reaching around in case something got in her way.

BUMP! "Ow!" she squealed, stumbling backward a couple of steps and holding her nose. She had walked face-first into a tree. It was almost funny; despite how many times she reached in front of her, she always seemed to walk into something no less than a second after failing to touch whatever was directly in front of her. Sometimes she hated this darkness that she constantly generated… but it was better than the alternative: the naturally light of day or even of night burning her crimson-coloured eyes, such was the consequence of seeing nothing but dark things for most of her life. She'd rather be able to see slightly than not at all.

This girl was a youkai, like many of the residents of this land. Her appearance and clothing wasn't unlike what you'd find on any schoolgirl of ten years of age; she had short, blonde hair with a red ribbon in it, and wore a black sleeveless dress with a white undershirt donned with a red bowtie. Her name was Rumia, a lesser youkai that was frequently used for target practice by beings more powerful than herself, which she is very bitter about.

But for now, that wasn't what was on her mind. Right now, she was searching for something. There was a rumor circulating among youkai in the forest that something strange had been popping up all over the forest… a black doll of some sort, as it had been described. This rumor had yet to be proven, however: some searched for the doll in question and found nothing, while others never returned from their excursions. There was another part of the rumor which stated that it only seemed to appear at night, and being a mostly-nocturnal youkai with nothing better to do at the time, Rumia took it upon herself to search for it.

But so far, after trudging around what she believed to be half of the forest, the only thing she discovered – or rediscovered – was how to make her nose sting from walking into things too hard. She was about to give up, take to the skies and go home… when she felt a sudden chill go up her spine.

She could sense it. A very strong power… coming from her left.

She was filled with excitement and anxiety at the same time; there was something nearby that was so strong, simply approaching it made her shiver. She set off in that direction, reaching her hands around to make sure she didn't run into any more trees… she could feel it, she was getting close. But because of the veil of darkness she constantly cast around her, she'd likely not be able to see it if she found it. Just this once, she dispersed the veil, closing her stinging eyes as they tried to adjust to the brighter scenery.

When she could see well enough, she saw that she was in a slight clearing. And in that clearing, a lump of black clearly stood out now that the darkness was gone. She could feel it; this was it. This was the doll.

But as she moved to approach it, a voice caught her ear. "See!? There it is!" The voice of a young girl… perhaps there was a chance for a potential meal? Rumia quickly hid herself in the nearest brush and peeked her head out to see that two girls had been airborne and landing next to the alleged doll. Unfortunate for two reasons, the first being that flight-capable humans were bound to be strong and more trouble than they were worth to eat, and the second being that one of them was holding a lantern. She immediately felt her eyes sting in disapproval of the light source… but they would adjust. "What did I tell ya? I found it!"

"Yeah, yeah, you can stop boasting now." the girl's companion said, her voice also that of a female, but higher-pitched and more nasal-sounding. While Rumia couldn't see their forms clearly yet, she could tell that they were both her size, though whether they were human or youkai remained to be seen. The second girl bent down to inspect the doll, which to Rumia still appeared as a black silhouette, even when she grabbed it and lifted it up to standing size. The doll was the same size as any one of them, but she could see nothing other than that since the girl was holding it from the other side. "Wow… it's kind of cute." she commented, touching what Rumia to believed its face. "It feels so real… are you _sure_ this is a doll?"

"Of course! It's not breathing, is it?" the girl with the lantern replied.

The second girl murmured slightly before responding, "Hmm… well, it definitely isn't a human or youkai… it feels warm."

Rumia was admittedly neither the strongest nor the smartest youkai out there, but the night was a cool one… shouldn't the doll be cold as well? For it to be warm would mean it was alive… could it possibly be a human or youkai attempting to deceive the two girls? "That's why I found it weird. This has to be the doll that everyone's talking about." the lantern-holding girl said. If this was a trick, it was definitely working.

"Well… what do we do with it?" the girl currently holding the doll asked her companion.

"What do you think? We bring it back and show everyone!" her friend said energetically.

Rumia shivered again, a sudden surge of energy reminding her that the doll possessed power… which made her think. These girls were neither commenting on its power nor making any sign that they'd felt it… a youkai or a strong human would pick up on such things naturally. This meant that they had to be humans, weak ones. It seems that she had misjudged them; while not commonplace in this land of Gensokyo, humans could be taught to fly… but this only meant that they had potential, not that they had yet realized it. Rumia could get a free meal out of these hapless wanderers and take the doll in one fell swoop. As the girls began to walk away, she raised her arms to generate a veil of darkness…

The area went pitch black. Rumia and the girls gasped. She was still collecting her magic power to perform the spell, she wasn't the one who did this, nor could she create a darkness so thick as to completely drown out the light of the lantern. What was going on? Surely she would've sensed an interfering youkai, the creator of a darkness this thick would stand out to her like a sore thumb. And there was no way that the girls were responsible. That only left…

No sooner had her train of thought come to a conclusion did the sudden, agonized yelp of both of the girls pierce the night. This was immediately followed by that chill she felt from the doll… but this time it didn't go away after a brief moment, this time it stayed with her. She then heard the sound of shattering glass… they must've dropped the lantern. The smell of burning grass quickly filled her nostrils, but not even that could illuminate the darkness. She could hear pained seething coming from the girls; what on earth was happening to them?

As if to answer her question, the darkness had lifted, allowing the spreading fire to illuminate the scene. What she saw horrified her. Through her watering, sensitive eyes, she could see that the doll was laying back where it was before the girls picked it up… but this time, there was a very noticeable difference. A bunch of crimson, glowing threads were sticking out of the doll – as it was still a blurry patch of black to her, she couldn't tell where they were sticking out from – and were embedded in various parts of the girl's bodies. Their wrists, their ankles and the backs of their heads had these red threads stuck in them… blurred patches of red dripping from these places indicated that they were bleeding badly out of those wounds.

Only one word occupied Rumia's thoughts now: RUN! But for some reason, she couldn't move… now that she thought of it, she was having trouble breathing too. She could only shake and shiver, feeling an overwhelming sensation of cold consume her body. She knew she couldn't be frozen in a block of ice, but regardless, she was still frozen in place. Despite how much she tried, she couldn't move a muscle, not even her eyelids. And she really wished she could close her eyes right now, because they stung badly from exposure to this much brightness.

"OW! WHAT'RE YOU DOING!?" screamed one of the girls. Rumia's attention was drawn to this; her eyesight having cleared up a little, she could see that one of the girl's cheeks was now bleeding… and that the other girl's right-hand fingers had blood on them. That same hand rose and struck the same spot, inciting another screech from her friend. And another, and another, and another as she punched and scratched away at her.

"I… I CAN'T! I CAN'T STOP! I CAN'T STOOOP!" wailed her friend. Suddenly, the other girl began to retaliate, but in a more gruesome manner; her fingers had gouged into her eye sockets, and then ripped back out… Rumia could see something white in her hand… oh God… "AAAAHHHHH!" the girl who was now lacking of an eye cried out in obvious pain.

"OH MY GOD… I… I CAN'T CONTROL MYSELF!" her friend shouted, confused and frightened out of her mind. She was struck in the neck, a sizeable chunk being ripped off. What would've been a scream was replaced with an audible gurgling noise, with blood flowing profusely out of the new wound.

Rumia wanted to close her eyes, turn her head, _anything_ to get away from this horrid scene… but she was still unable to move. She was forced to look at the sobbing, crying girls as they unwillingly tore into each other like rabid animals. Blood and pieces of torn-off flesh were quickly starting to litter the ground… but no matter the injury, both girls were quick to return the damage with something either just as painful or even moreso.

One of the girls let out an agonized cry as her friend-turned-foe drove both hands into her stomach with unnatural strength, ripping a gaping hole in her chest. Rumia wanted desperately to get away from this massacre, but her body still refused to move. She was forced to watch as blood, organs and stomach acid poured out onto the ground. Such a wound should've been the death of the victim, even if it were a youkai, but she still fought back with just as much power and ferocity as her aggressor, performing the same disgusting action in return. Now both of them were torn open. And _still_ they fought, tearing off every bit of flesh that they could lay hands on. The girl with the neck wound had even bitten into her former friend's neck to rip it open. There was no scream this time, just a weak groan, but she still clawed at her back in response to spill more blood from her body.

If Rumia were able to move, she would be throwing up right now. She had eaten humans before, the sight of some of this gore wasn't new to her, but this… mindless beating and clawing… "wrong" was the only term she could use to describe it. She didn't know how long the massacre lasted, and she didn't want to know. Eventually the girls had stropped making noise entirely, but were still tearing into each other. It was only then that the crimson threads that were embedded in their bodies snapped out of them, fading away. The two girls then collapsed beside each other, most definately dead.

She was than made privy to a new danger; the doll that the threads had sprung out from… was beginning to move. It slowly began to stand up, limping and sagging towards the mutilated bodied of the poor human girls. Its movements were like that of a poorly-controlled puppet on strings. When it reached the girls, it fell to its knees, bending down… and sticking its head into the ripped-open stomach of one of the girls. A slight blue glow came out from the inside of her body, and Rumia could distinctly hear slurping sounds. The doll then took its head out of the girl's body and repeated the same procedure with the other one. It took its head out…

And then slowly turned it to look straight at Rumia, the chill that plagued her body intensifying. It was then that she realized: the doll was the reason that she couldn't move. She didn't know what manner of magic it was, but it had immobilized her completely, to the point where her lungs could barely move and her eyelids couldn't close.

The doll got back to its feet, limping towards her. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry for help, and most of all she just wanted to get the hell away from this… _thing_, but her body wouldn't allow it. _It_ wouldn't allow it. This was no doll, and it certainly wasn't human or youkai… it was a monster. Now that her eyes had adjusted to the new lighting and didn't hurt as much, she could clearly make out its form now; it looked like a little boy appearing to be no more than ten years old, wearing jet-black robes that were matted with stitches and patches all over. The sleeves it had were much too long for its small frame, and she saw that they too were stitched on. Its hair was also black, short on the front but long enough to shade its eyes, and long and flowing down his back stopping at his knees. Its skin colour was slightly pale, offset by the blood that it had gotten smeared on its emotionless face from… doing whatever it was doing to the girl's corpses.

It was standing right in front of her now, before it began to stumble around her, seeming to be inspecting her. What was it going to do to her? Would it make her tear herself apart like it did the girls and then eat her insides too? She didn't want to think about it, but there was little else she could do right now. It stopped in front of her again, looking her in the eyes… she could see its eyes now; they had wide irises and were pitch black, lifeless. It felt like she was getting sucked into them; she doubted she could stop looking into them even if she could move…

Then it did something most unexpected. It leaned its face forward… and met her lips with his own. A slight gasp escaped her throat, both in disgust and surprise at how real it felt. She wanted to push it away, but the ghostly chill that had immobilized her refused to let up. She felt something invading her mouth… she hadn't kissed anyone in her life before, but she knew how it worked. It must've been slipping its tongue to meet her own…

But she immediately rejected that notion when she felt the intrusion slipping far _past_ her tongue and starting to go down her throat. She quickly began to choke; what was it doing to her!? She then felt a tug on the ribbon in her hair; a horrible dizzy spell rocked her body and drained her strength. Another tug, and she felt it come loose from her hair.

Rumia's vision faded to black almost immediately…

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**A/N:** Readers who are knowledgeable of Rumia's character should know what's coming next... please read and review!


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